As Denver and state leaders spend millions of dollars on pedestrian and cyclist safety, the number of collisions continues to grow at an alarming rate. Even worse, more and more drivers are leaving the scene of such accidents.

Hit-and-run cases involving pedestrians have nearly quadrupled in four years, and the drivers who eventually get caught are often allowed to avoid prison time through plea agreements with prosecutors.

One of those drivers, 30-year-old teacher Erin Jackson, is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning to face sentencing for a hit-and-run that gravely injured 16-year-old Deyondrah Bridgeman near East High School in February. Prosecutors have dismissed the most serious charge and are expected to recommend no jail time. They have declined to discuss the case until Jackson is sentenced.

Legislators and policymakers say laws and money alone can't prevent collisions between vehicles and people — or persuade drivers to stay when someone gets hurt.

"There's only so many tickets you can write, only so many lines you can put on the streets," said Amber Miller, spokeswoman for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who has made cyclist and pedestrian safety a top priority. "It has to be the community embracing a culture of looking out for their own safety and the safety of others."

About one in every four auto-pedestrian collisions in Denver is a hit-and-run, according to Denver police. Nationally, that figure is about one in five.

Denver had 100 hit-and-run cases involving pedestrians from Jan. 1 to Aug. 17, compared with 28 during that same period in 2009, police said.

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In all, the city has had 384 auto-pedestrian collisions, compared with 254 in that period in 2009.

The Denver Police Department couldn't provide similar data for automobile-cyclist collisions, but the most recent numbers available showed 23 incidents in March, 25 in April and 35 in May.

Statewide, pedestrian crashes involving vehicles accounted for 52 deaths statewide in 2009 and 73 in 2012, according to the latest figures available from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

CDOT next year will spend $230,000 from a federal grant to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety, on top of ongoing safety projects, said spokeswoman Amy Ford.

Denver has spent millions on safety elements such as wider, reflective crosswalk stripes and crossing lights that tell pedestrians how much time they have to get across, but the exact cost for safety programs is difficult to extract from the overall budget.

Despite the investments, the number of collisions has continued to rise.

The increase could be the result, at least in part, of the law of averages: Colorado, and Denver in particular, encourages people to ride bikes and walk. As a result, the numbers of collisions could be expected to rise as well, Miller said.

Denver has added more than 100 miles of bike lanes since 2009, bringing the total to 172.

A census report indicates that the percentage of Denver residents commuting on bicycles grew to 2.4 percent in 2011, or about 7,500 people, up from 1.6 percent in 2007.

The report projected that the number would reach 5 percent in Denver in 2016. Nationally, 0.56 percent of people commute on bicycles, according to the report.

The survey indicated that in 2009 in Denver, 4 percent of commuters walked. The number rose to 4.6 percent in 2011. Nearly 80 percent of people in Denver used cars and trucks to get around in 2011.

More state laws don't appear likely. Over the past decades, Colorado has passed several, including stiffening penalties for hit-and-run drivers, increasing the points on driver's licenses for careless driving resulting in death and instituting a 3-foot buffer between bicycles and motor vehicles.

State Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, has been leading public meetings across the state to hear from residents about road issues. The input might guide legislation next year.

"It hasn't come up so far," he said of cyclist and pedestrian safety. "We haven't met in Denver yet, and that seems to be where most of the problem is."

Heath has heard of no legislation that might be proposed around the issue.